Wilbur Wright Born: Half of Aviation's Founding Duo

Wilbur Wright was the older brother and the deeper thinker of the pair that invented controlled, sustained, powered flight. Born on April 16, 1867, in Millville, Indiana, he never received a high school diploma because his family moved from Richmond, Indiana, before his senior year, and the new school in Dayton, Ohio, wouldn't issue one. He was self-educated in the truest sense, reading voraciously in mechanics, engineering, and natural history. He ran the analytical calculations, designed the wind tunnel experiments, and conducted the first glider tests at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, beginning in 1900. The brothers built their own wind tunnel in their bicycle shop in Dayton in 1901 and tested over 200 different wing shapes to gather aerodynamic data that was more accurate than anything available from professional engineers. Wilbur's methodical approach to the problem of powered flight was extraordinary. He studied bird flight, corresponded with leading engineers including Octave Chanute, and identified the critical problem that had defeated all previous attempts: three-axis control. The Wright Flyer achieved this through wing warping, a system that Wilbur conceived by observing how a twisted inner tube box changed shape under pressure. On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, Orville made the first powered flight at 10:35 a.m., covering 120 feet in 12 seconds. Wilbur made the longest flight that day: 852 feet in 59 seconds. The brothers spent the next several years refining their aircraft and defending their patents against competitors. Wilbur handled most of the public demonstrations and business negotiations. He died of typhoid fever on May 30, 1912, at age 45. Orville lived until 1948 and watched aircraft break the sound barrier.